Alex Gibney Sells Majority Stake in Doc Business to Google Billionaire Philanthropist Wendy Schmidt

In a sign of just how difficult the documentary film business has become, Alex Gibney – one of the most prolific and well-known documentarians – has sold a majority stake in his company Jigsaw Productions to make sure it’s “around for the long haul.”

Wendy Schmidt, a longtime philanthropist and wife of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, has acquired a majority stake in Jigsaw, which has produced a number of documentary films and TV series like the Scientology doc “Going Clear,” the Elizabeth Holmes doc “The Inventor” and 2005’s “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.”

Gibney will continue to run the company, but told the New York Times — which broke the news — that the challenging market for documentaries spurred the partnership.

“We’ve been managing to make films on important social issues for a long time, but finding and getting those stories to audiences has been a challenge, in part because of the consolidation of the entertainment industry,” he said.

The New York-based company employs 15 people but will now expand to Los Angeles and add more staff. Schmidt told the NYT that the company will also broaden its editorial focus to include more stories on climate change and ocean health, topics about which she feels passionately.

“This is about trying to assume a mantle, a role that we think is a vital one in the film business,” she told the NYT. “Documentary film is such a powerful tool, especially today with the division in our society.”

And yet as the entertainment industry has consolidated and documentaries have struggled to do business at the box office, finding financing and distribution has become incredibly challenging. Even “No Other Land,” a likely winner of the Best Documentary Feature award at this year’s Oscars, still doesn’t have U.S. distribution.

Producer Lauren Haber of Amplify Pictures told TheWrap ahead of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where she was seeking distribution for “Come See Me in the Good Light,” that documentary filmmakers are now packaging stories they’re passionate about as films that are more marketable.

“I think that those filmmakers and those messages aren’t going away,” she told TheWrap, noting that the market is currently most attracted to true crime, celebrity, sports and music docs. “They’re just going to change and evolve into the kinds of stories that are getting more attention. So if you need a celebrity documentary to make a trans documentary, that’s getting seen.”

So far, not a single documentary that premiered at this year’s Sundance has closed a distribution deal.

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